Powerful Performance Against Rocket

The Toronto Marlies have tied a franchise record for longest point streak as they earned a point for the thirteenth consecutive game today, compiling a 12-0-0-1 record over that span.

The Marlies scored early and often in today’s contest, pulling away to a 4-0 lead before the first intermission.

Dmytro Timashov opened the scoring at the 7:15 mark of the first period, deflecting a blast by Andrew Nielsen for his tenth of the season. Jeremy Bracco had the secondary assist on the goal.

Three minutes later, Nikita Soshnikov connected on a one-timer from a tough angle to extend the lead. It was the sixth of the season for Soshnikov, and Miro Aaltonen and Andreas Johnsson earned assists.

Colin Greening cut to the net and took a great pass from Frederik Gauthier to extend the lead to 3-0 just four minutes after that. Martin Marincin had the second assist on Greening’s eleventh of the year.

With under two minutes left in the first, Kerby Rychel took a quick faceoff win and snapped a shot on net that was deflected by Ben Smith to extend the lead to 4-0 at the intermission. It was Smith’s nineteenth of the season.

Less than three minutes into the second period, Trevor Moore took a behind-the-back pass from Rychel and buried it on the power play to extend the lead to 5-0. Bracco had the secondary assist on Moore’s ninth of the season.

The five-goal lead held into the third period when Andreas Johnsson fought through a hold and broke in alone to score his team-leading 22nd goal of the season. Aaltonen and Nielsen had the helpers.

Six minutes after that, Rinat Valiev snuck into the slot and redirected a crisp pass from Bracco as the Marlies made it 7-0. Vincent LoVerde had the secondary assist on Valiev’s second of the season.

Markus Eisenschmid got a late one back for Laval as the Marlies skated to a 7-1 victory over the rival Rocket.

With the win, the Marlies improve to 34-11-0-1 on the season and are now 5-1-0-0 against the Rocket. Laval falls to 17-23-5-2.

Calvin Pickard made 31 saves in a winning effort for the Marlies, his fifteenth victory of the season. He now has a 1.89 goals against average and .931 save percentage.

Johnsson now has five goals in his past three games and eight points over that span. Bracco finished the day with three helpers in the game, setting a new career-high for both assists and points. Valiev extended his point streak to three games and has a goal and two assists in that span. Aaltonen had two assists as he collects multi-point games in back-to-back nights.

The Marlies return to action this Friday in Belleville when they head to Yardmen Arena to face the Senators and will be back at Ricoh Coliseum on Saturday, February 10 for our Star Wars Game against Binghamton.

Dmytro Timashov opened the scoring at 7:15 of the first period. Timashov has 23 points (10 goals, 13 assists) this season.

Nikita Soshnikov scored the game-winning goal at 10:24 of the first period. Soshnikov has recorded a point (1 goal, 1 assist) in each of his two games since his return from injury with the Marlies.

Colin Greening scored his 11th goal of the season at 14:27 of the first period.

Ben Smith scored at 18:17 of the first period. Smith has recorded 35 points (19 goals, 16 assists) this season.

Trevor Moore scored on the power play at 2:51 of the second period. Moore has seven points (2 goals, 5 assists) in his last seven games.

Andreas Johnsson scored at 2:25 of the third period and earlier added the secondary assist on Soshnikov’s first period goal. Johnsson is now second in scoring in the AHL with 22 goals.

Rinat Valiev scored at 8:35 of the third period. Valiev has recorded a point (1 goal, 2 assists) in his last three games.

Andrew Nielsen recorded the primary assist on Timashov’s first period goal and the secondary assist on Johnsson’s third period goal.

Jeremy Bracco registered the secondary assists on Timashov’s first period goal and Moore’s second period goal and added the primary assist on Valiev’s third period goal for a career-high of three points in one game.

Miro Aaltonen recorded the primary assists on Soshnikov’s first period goal and Johnsson’s third period goal. Aaltonen has four points (1 goal, 3 assists) in his last two games.

Frederik Gauthier had the primary assist on Greening’s first period goal.

Martin Marincin registered the secondary assist on Greening’s first period goal. Marincin has recorded a point (2 assists) in both of his last two games.

Kerby Rychel recorded the primary assists on Smith’s first period goal and Moore’s second period goal.

Chris Mueller had the secondary assist on Smith’s first period goal.

Vincent LoVerde recorded the secondary assist on Valiev’s third period goal. LoVerde has registered a point (1 goal, 1 assist) in two consecutive games.

Calvin Pickard stopped 31 of 32 shots. Pickard is now 15-5-0-1 on the season with a .931 Save Percentage and a 1.89 Goals Against Average.

NOTABLES

The Marlies have extended their point streak to 13 games (12-0-0-1 – 25 points).

With seven goals scored, this is the Marlies highest scoring game of the season. The Marlies previously scored six goals against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Jan. 6, 2018.

Toronto went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and 1-for-2 on the power play. The Marlies penalty kill has not allowed a goal in its last six games.

Toronto had a 34-32 edge in shots in all situations.

Calle Rosén led the Marlies with five shots on goal.

The Marlies are 24-6-0-0 against North Division opponents this season and 5-1-0-0 against the Laval Rocket. The Marlies have outscored the Rocket 25-9 with six games left in the season’s series.

TEAM LEADERS

Goals: A. Johnsson (22)

Assists: C. Mueller (18)

Points: A. Johnsson (37)

PPG: A. Johnsson (6), C. Mueller (6)

Shots: K. Rychel (98)

+/-: B. Smith (+27)

PIMS: A. Nielsen (93)

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH SHELDON KEEFE

On tonight’s game:We got chances and we made good on them. We wanted to get off to a good start today. They were the rusty team coming in to today, they didn’t play last night and they were here waiting for us when we traveled back. So, you’re never really sure how things are going to go at the start when that’s the case … We wanted to get on top of them and take away any thoughts that they might have that we were going to be asleep in this one. I really liked it, we came out ready to go and built the lead. From 4-0 on, I don’t know if much of the game is watchable from there frankly. In those situations, you don’t make too much from a game like that, but I really liked the start.

On playing with an early lead:

Well it doesn’t change a whole lot. You still just want to make sure you take care of the lead, there is a lot of hockey left. You don’t want to be playing in your own zone for the rest of the game and that is the kind of thing that can tend to happen. You just don’t have the same kind of jump and the other team can start coming and you don’t want to have to defend for 40 minutes. We just try to preach good habits and have everybody keep doing the things that we want them to do so we can continue to play everybody and play four lines. You really just want to get out of the game clean as much as you can and let the clock wind down and get out of here.

The Toronto Marlies will have little time to rest after last night’s 4-2 road victory in Rochester as they get set for an afternoon matchup against the Laval Rocket at home on Saturday.

The Marlies (33-11-0-1) come into the game on a three-game win streak and have earned a point in their last 12 games, going 11-0-0-1 in that span. Against the Rocket this season, the Marlies are 4-1-0-0 and have won the last four meetings by a combined 16-5 difference.

Laval (17-22-5-2) have lost three straight, including a pair of losses to Manitoba last weekend. They will look for their first win since January 20 when they come to Ricoh Coliseum.

Andreas Johnsson had a three-point night in Rochester yesterday, as he leads the Marlies in both goals (21) and points (35). Ben Smith remains second in both categories, with 18 goals and 34 points on the season.

The Rocket’s offense is powered by Chris Terry, who is tied for the league lead in points with 43 (20G, 23A). Defenceman Matt Taormina is second in scoring for Laval with 40 points (4G, 36A).

Puck drop for today’s game is scheduled for 4:00 and tickets are still available. Fans can also tune in on Leafs Nation Network or AHL Live for all the action with Todd Crocker and Bob McGill.

Follow us on Twitter for pre- and post-game coverage, as well as live updates from inside Ricoh Coliseum.